Eight minutes. According to the Chicago Police Department, it took eight minutes for police to arrive at the scene where a man had been beating his wife for 15 to 20 minutes while her children screamed and hollered. In those eight minutes last Wednesday night, Stacey D. Moyer, 29, of 3555 S. Cottage Grove, was shot and killed. After shooting his wife of only two months, Billy Earl Winborn allegedly shot himself in the head.

The tragedy happened while both of Moyer's children by previous relationships were in the apartment. Crystal Marshall, Moyer's 12-year-old daughter, called 911 repeatedly after her mother yelled out from a locked bedroom door that Winborn was hurting her.

It is unclear at what point the argument escalated into a physical fight, but Crystal told me in a phone interview that she thought it was about 7:30 p.m. when her mother yelled for her to call 911.

"The first time I called 911, I said my mother was getting beat up by my father and they needed to hurry up," Crystal said. "They told me they were on the way and they hung up."

The seventh-grader estimates that she made the second call five minutes later.

"The second time I called 911, they told me to just calm down and that the police were on 35th Street and something."

After Crystal called 911 at least twice, she called her grandmother's cell phone.

Geneva Johnson was attending a pre-Thanksgiving event with her girlfriend at the Lick Bar & Grill at 147th and Halsted in Harvey when she got Crystal's call. She estimates the call came in between 8 and 8:15 p.m.

"She said: 'Billy Earl is beating my mama,' " Johnson told me. "And I said, 'OK, I am on my way,' and I left everything right there and jumped in my truck. I am not going to lie. I broke every traffic law."

When she got to the building on Cottage Grove -- about a 20-minute trip from the Harvey location -- an ambulance was just pulling up to the building and police squad cars were blocking the street.

"I knew it was something serious," Johnson said. "I jumped out of my truck in the middle of the street and ran toward the ambulance, but a police officer grabbed me and rushed me to a police car."

Similar case

According to Monique Bond, director of News Affairs for Chicago Police, the first recorded call about the domestic violence situation was at 8:25 p.m., police were dispatched at 8:26 p.m., and police squads were on the scene -- meaning at the seventh-floor apartment and trying to get into the locked bedroom door -- at 8:33. There were a total of six calls to 911 about the disturbance, Bond said.

"I can tell you eight minutes is excellent. They were at the scene in eight minutes," she said.

But in those eight minutes, Crystal and her 3-year-old sister, Phylicia, lost their mother, and Johnson lost her only daughter and best friend.

And if the first call to 911 came in at 8:25 p.m., that would mean that the fighting had gone on for nearly an hour with two children screaming and trying to kick down the bedroom door. That noise should have been enough to trigger 911 calls from others living on the same floor.

In another horrible domestic violence case that occurred in 2002, it took police officers 17 minutes to reach Ronyale White after her first 911 call. Two police officers were suspended for their slow response and White's family sued the city and police department.

Lack of sensitivity

Under such chaotic circumstances, it is possible that 12-year-old Crystal could have gotten confused about the time she made her first call. Still, I've met the girl. It is hard for me to believe that she would have waited nearly an hour to call 911, or that she didn't frantically call 911 until help arrived.

Besides her engulfing grief, Johnson is outraged because she feels police officers didn't show a sense of urgency, and lacked sensitivity when they did show up. She complained that one police officer on the scene blurted out in front of the hysterical kids, "I might as well tell you your daughter and her husband are dead."

I also don't understand why the 911 dispatcher didn't stay on the phone with the 12-year-old girl until the police arrived or give her some instructions about what she should do to protect herself and her little sister. Why didn't the dispatcher ask her if there were any guns in the house?

Bond couldn't answer those questions, but she said she would listen to the 911 tape to determine what was said to the girl.

We need to understand what happened in those eight minutes.

Because to a 12-year-old girl in the midst of violence, eight minutes isn't excellent. It is an eternity.

If you want to really be angry at the carnage caused by "Mayor Daley Style" gun control just read Sun Times' Columnist Mary Mitchell's report of the murder of Ms. Stacey D. Moyer. Again, 911 was only useful to direct the police to the location they could then file a police report. Ms. Moyer was defenseless by law and paid the price for Mayor Daley's dangerous gun control schemes.

Ms. Mitchell:

This is truly heart wrenching. I cannot imagine the horror those children underwent.

I would guess you still are not a "believer" but if Ms. Moyer had a chance to defend herself this whole thing might have ended a lot differently and I think deep down you know it.

The following is not meant to be trite, but rather offered as truism's in this case:

1. If you are being attacked: a) Use a gun. or b) Use a telephone. Choose one, it is your life. 2. And hard, but true: "Dial 911 and Die" http://www.jpfo.org/dial911anddie.htm

Our condolences to the Moyer family and we are particularly concerned about her children. If some fund is set up for them please let me know via email or in your column.

Unfortunately, I don't think that anything could have saved these people if the boyfriend/husband living in the house could physically block access to a person's means of self defense.

xxxxxxxx

When you read the thousands of stories where firearms were used as a defense tool, the stories will amaze the reader.

Most non firearm educated souls do you know how difficult it is to kill a person, if the attacker does not hit a vital spot.

Many children before gun locks have saved their parents, or siblings, or scared off bad guys with guns.

This beating when on for at lease 20 minutes trapped in her bedroom. Picture yourself in your bedroom with a gun in the nightstand. Do you think you could con your way to the nightstand. I bet you will bet your life you could.

Firearms are not an absolute 100% defense, but given the choice between a phone, 911, and a gun, tens of thousands perhaps millions of Americans and perhaps hundred of millions of souls on this earth would choose a firearm as a self defense tool. This concept "have a fireearm for self defense when attacked" by millions of souls on this planet destroys the myth of anti gun lover everywhere.

Yes, if one of the older children had at least been taught the basics of gun safety and usage, they might have been able to defend their mother. But then again, as the adult in the house, I have control over the guns and they are not easily accessable to the kids. This was a bad situation where the real answer was for the woman to have made a better choice of men.

6
posted on 11/22/2005 10:59:02 AM PST
by Blood of Tyrants
(G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)

A Little Rock man continues to recover after Police say his ex-wife took a gun and shot him in self-defense. The incident happened Monday morning at 7105 Fourche Dam Pike in Little Rock. Police say 50 year old Judy Melton shot her 50 year old ex-husband Eddie Melton. According to Little Rock Police, Melton showed up at the residence, got very angry because his ex-wife wouldnt let him in, and then he proceeded to kick in the door, and she shot him.

Police say he has a record of domestic abuse. Just last year, Police sat he kept Judy Melton hostage for 6 hours at gunpoint.

"Mom -- didn`t want to press the charges all the way, because everything kind of blew over, said the couples son Michael Melton.

Judy Melton is not facing charges at this time, but the case will be reviewed by the prosecutor.

Experts say some abusive relationships end in homicide, and its up to the victim to get out early.

In 2004, 14 women were killed in Little Rock, as victims of domestic abuse. This past month, 174 women in Pulaski County filed for orders of protection, because of an abusive relationship.

"That batterer is saying that they`re going to do right by you next time...and then it happens again, like they`re Doctor Jekl and Mister Hyde, said DaVetta Flowers with Women and Children First.

Experts say the best thing to do in that situation is to find a shelter in your community or call the authorities.

You have me wrong. I am probably MORE pro-2A than most. Hell, I believe that ex-cons retain their RKBA just like all their other rights, which is not a popular opinion.

In many situations a gun will be used to protect a life, but in THESE PARTICULAR SITUATIONS in THIS story, it would probably make no difference as the perps lived in the homes and controlled access to the guns. Unless there was a neighbor with enough balls to intervene, there was little any family member could do.

10
posted on 11/22/2005 1:21:39 PM PST
by Blood of Tyrants
(G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)

You have me wrong. I am probably MORE pro-2A than most. Hell, I believe that ex-cons retain their RKBA just like all their other rights, which is not a popular opinion.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

In your mind and spirit are a true 2nd supporter. I support the concept that in 10,000 case a certain % will turn out bad for the good guy.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

My point in our blogging is we must never give up the fight for the right to self defense tools. You must not live in the City of Chicago death, where you go to jail if you have gun in your home.

So for all those liberal anti gun folks out there I will not give an inch of satisfaction that guns are not a good solution for husband abuse and restraining orders. The woman maybe had a zero chance with a gun but the woman definately has zero chance without a gun. Your comments gave an edge to the anti gun crowd and that is as Coach MIke Dika say today kick ass and take name new book never give up.

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